About the Authors

Keiko Kondo

Affiliations Department of Medicine, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Shiga, Japan, Department of Public Health, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Shiga, Japan

Katsutaro Morino

morino@belle.shiga-med.ac.jp

Affiliation Department of Medicine, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Shiga, Japan

Yoshihiko Nishio

Affiliation Department of Diabetes and Endocrine Medicine, Kagoshima University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Kagoshima, Japan

Atsushi Ishikado

Affiliations Department of Medicine, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Shiga, Japan, R&D Department, Sunstar Inc., Takatsuki, Osaka, Japan

Hisatomi Arima

Affiliations Department of Public Health, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Shiga, Japan, Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Fukuoka University, Fukuoka, Japan

Keiko Nakao

Affiliation Department of Medicine, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Shiga, Japan

Fumiyuki Nakagawa

Affiliations Department of Medicine, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Shiga, Japan, Osaka Laboratory, CMIC Pharma Science Co., Osaka, Japan

Fumio Nikami

Affiliation R&D Department, Sunstar Inc., Takatsuki, Osaka, Japan

Osamu Sekine

Affiliation Department of Medicine, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Shiga, Japan

Ken-ichi Nemoto

Affiliation Department of Medicine, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Shiga, Japan

Makoto Suwa

Affiliation R&D Department, Sunstar Inc., Takatsuki, Osaka, Japan

Motonobu Matsumoto

Affiliation R&D Department, Sunstar Inc., Takatsuki, Osaka, Japan

Katsuyuki Miura

Affiliation Department of Public Health, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Shiga, Japan

Taketoshi Makino

Affiliation R&D Department, Sunstar Inc., Takatsuki, Osaka, Japan

Satoshi Ugi

Affiliation Department of Medicine, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Shiga, Japan

Hiroshi Maegawa

Affiliation Department of Medicine, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Shiga, Japan

Competing Interests

We have the following interests: The Department of Medicine at Shiga University of Medical Science (SUMS) received research promotion grants (Shougaku Kifukin) from Sunstar and this study was partially funded by Sunstar. A. Ishikado is an employee of Sunstar and a visiting assistant professor of SUMS. Fumio Nikami, Makoto Suwa, Motonobu Matsumoto and Taketoshi Makino are also employed by Sunstar Inc. F. Nakagawa is an employee of CMIC Pharma Science Co., and a graduate student of SUMS. The Department of Medicine at SUMS received research promotion grants (Shougaku Kifukin) from Ono Pharmaceutical, Takeda, Boehringer Ingelheim, Astellas, AstraZeneca, Sunstar, Taisho- Toyama, Daiichi-Sankyo, and MSD. The research topics of these grants were not restricted. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products to declare other than brown rice pouch, which is a marketed product of Sunstar Inc. These facts do not alter the authors’ adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization: KK K. Morino YN AI HM. Formal analysis: KK. Funding acquisition: KK HM. Investigation: KK K. Morino K. Nakao. Project administration: KK. Resources: MS MM. Supervision: HM. Writing – original draft: KK K. Morino. Writing – review & editing: K. Morino YN AI HA F. Nakagawa F. Nikami OS K. Nemoto MS MM K. Miura TM SU HM.